Alwindtour

TheImportantPeakIndexoftheRegistryofMassSpectralDataFredW.
McLaffertyandDouglasB.
StaufferJohnWileyandSons,Inc.
,NewYork[Phone:(800)526-5368;Fax:(201)302-2300],3Volumes,4,057pp.
,ISBN#0-471-55270-4,1991,$750.
00BookreviewbyK.
B.
Tomer,NationalInstituteofEnvironmentalHealthSciences,P.
O.
Box12233,ResearchTrianglePark,NC27709Thisisathree-volumesetofbookscontainingatabu-lationofthesix"mostimportant"peaksofthe136,141differentmassspectraof115,917compoundscontainedintheWiley/NBSRegistryofMassSpectralData.
Spec-traarelistedbythemass-to-chargeratioofeachofthethree"mostimportant"peaksinamannersimilartothatoftheEightPeakIndex.
WhatdifferentiatesthesevolumesfromitsparentpublicationandfromtheEightPeakIndexisthatthepeakslistedhavebeenchosenonthebasisoftheirstatisticalimportanceratherthanjustontheirrelativeabundance.
Todeterminethestatisticalimportanceofthepeaks,theauthorshaveusedthesamealgorithmsastheyhaveemployedintheir"ProbabilityBasedMatching"system.
Thisap-proachreducestherelianceonrelativelycommonions,suchasrn/z43,foridentification.
Todeterminethe"mostimportant"ions,boththestatisticalimportanceofthemassaswellastherela-tiveabundanceisconsidered.
Thestatisticalimpor-tanceoruniqueness,U,ofanionisbasedontheinverseoftheprobabilityofoccurrenceofthepeakintheRegistrydatabase.
Thus,anionsuchasm/z43,whichhasahighprobabilityofoccurrence,willhavealow(zero)UvaluewhileionswithlowprobabilityofoccurrenceswillhavehighUvalues.
Therelativeabundanceofamass,A,isfactoredinonthebasisoftheinverseoftheprobabilityofoccurrenceofanionwiththatrelativeabundance.
Thus,ionsofhighrela-tiveabundanceoccurmuchlessfrequentlythandoionsoflowrelativeabundanceand,therefore,receiveahigherAvalue.
TheionswiththehighestA+Uvaluesaredefinedasthemostimportantions.
EachpageofthevolumehasalistingoftheUandAvaluestobeusedindeterminingapeak'simportance.
Al-though,atfirstglance,itappearsthatthisapproachmaybedifficulttogetusedto,the"importantpeaks"tendtobethosepeaksthatatrainedmassspec-trometristwouldpick.
Ifoundthesystemtoberela-tivelysimpletouseafteronlyafewapplications.
Theutilityofthevolumes,however,mustrestonhowwellunknownscanbeidentified.
Itestedthisbytryingtoidentifyanumberofspectrathatwereinmyfiles,includingsomethathavebeenreportedandsomethathavenotappearedintheliteratureoradata-base.
Theidentityofcompoundswhosespectra1993AmericanSocietyforMassSpectrometry1044-0305/93/$5.
00BOOKREVIEWShavebeenpublishedwereaccurately,rapidly,andeasilyidentified.
Notsurprisingly,compoundswhosespectrahavenotbeenreportedweremoredifficulttoidentify.
Insomecases,theidentitiesofcompoundswhosespectracontainedsimilar"mostimportant"ionswereoflittlehelpinidentifyingtheunknown.
Inothercases,theseidentitieswerequiteusefulinestablishingthegeneralclassofcompound.
Interestingly,the"mostimportant"peaksofsteroidmetabolitesoftenledtolistingsinwhichsteroidspredominated.
Insummary,thisindexisausefuladjuncttotheRegistrydatabase,especiallyasthelocationintheRegistrydatabaseisgivenforthefullspectrumofeachlisting.
Itwillbeanimportanttoolfortheidentifica-tionofunknownsbasedontheirmassspectraandcanbequiteusefulininterpretingthespectraoftrueunknowns.
Althoughthesetmaybetooexpensiveforindividualpurchasers,Iexpectthatthesevolumeswillbefoundinmostlaboratoriesthatdealwiththeinter-pretationLfspectra.
MassSpectrometryE.
ConstantinandA.
SchnellEllisHorwoodLtd.
,Chichester,UK[Phone:0442231555;Fax:0442275115].
184pp.
,ISBN#0-13-555525-6[hardcover,$79.
95],#0-13-553363-5[paperback$29.
951,1991.
BookreviewbyM.
M.
Bursey,DepartmentofChemistry,CB#3290VenableHall,UniversityofNorthCarolinaatChapelHillChapelHill,NC27599-3290ThistextbookisatranslationbyDr.
M.
H.
ChalmersofaFrenchtextfirstpublishedin1986.
Itincludesawhirlwindtourofthesubject.
Itmightbeconsideredasatextforabriefcourseonthemajortopicsinmassspectrometry,oritmightbeusedbysomeonetrainedinanotherfieldofthechemicalsciencesasawaytoreadintoourfield.
Thesubjectsofthechaptersaremassspectrometry;methodsofionization;classicalelectronimpactionizationsource;methodsforsampleintroduction;themassanalyser;methodsofdisplay,recording,andprocessingofsignals;typesofions,peaks,andmassspectra;nominalmassandexactmass;analysisofcarbonisotopes;metastableions;ion-moleculereactions;ionclusters;specialsources;appli-cationsofmassspectrometryinatmosphericinvestiga-tions;theoryofspectra;ionfragmentationmecha-nisms;isotopicanalysis;andrecentdevelopments.
Theaveragechapterisninepageslong.
Asacoursetextbook,itistoocondensed.
(Interpre-tationofmassspectraiscoveredinhalfapage,forexample.
)However,asitflitsfromtopictotopic,itspendsjustenoughtimeonmosttopicstomakestu-JAmSocMassSpectrom1993,4,82-83BOOKREVIEWS83dentsawareoftheexistenceofongoingintellectualactivityineacharea.
Inadditiontothereferencescitedforeachchapter,suggestionsforfurtherreadingaregivenforthelasttenchapters,andthereareaone-pagegenerallistofreviewsandarticlesofinterestandatwo-pagegeneralbibliography.
Tomyknowledgethisbookisuniqueasanintro-ductiontosomanytopicsforasurveycourse.
Soitmightbeused,forexample,inconjunctionwithamorethoroughintroductiontospectralinterpretation,togetherwithdistributednotestofillouttheteacher'sownpreferencesfordetailedconsideration.
Thesectiononspecialsourceswouldhavetobeamplifiedonthedevelopmentsinmatrix-assistedlaserdesorptionandinelectrospraythathaveoccurredsince1986,forex-ample.
Therearejustenoughtypographicalerrorstono-tice.